This case had been brought upon the Supreme Court because of the election of 1800. The republicans had once again elected Thomas Jefferson as president of the United States in 1800. They had elected Aaron Burr as Vice President, because he had helped to build New York into a strong republican state.

President John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney were both from S. Carolina and federalist candidates. The federalists had been campaigning against Jefferson, because they were not about to let him become president again. They really didn't want to trust him as a president again. The federalists claimed that Jefferson was out to destroy religion and was going to set up a goddess of reason like the extremists during the French Revolution had tried to accomplish.

The U.S. had been trying there best to stay far away from an aristocratic federalist government and was more interested in becoming a democratic government.

First Floor at the Statute of John Marshall, quota...

en: Aaron Burr (1756–1836), Vice President of th...

English: Aaron Burr. 3rd vice president of the Uni...

The republicans however had managed to win a clear victory.

Jefferson and Burr both had 73 electoral votes and Adams had 65 votes. The tie with the electoral votes had caused a serious crisis in the American Constitutional history. The electors that had voted for Jefferson and Burr were not completely clear about whether they were voting for president or vice president.

Using the constitution can easily solve problems like this. The 12th Amendment basically states that if no one in the election gets a majority of the votes that the election will then need to go through the House of Representatives. This would in return give each of the 16 states the right to one vote. In order for Jefferson or Burr to win they both needed to get a majority of the 16 states on heir side.

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